iShares Asia Region ETFs March Higher, Led by China

iShares Asia region country-based ETFs traded higher across the board last week for the second straight week. iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 gained 8.0%, to lead all advancers, increasing its year-to-date return to more than 50%.

iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 (FXI)is the best performer ytd among the funds surveyed.

S. Korea (EWY), +4.7%, up nearly 37% ytd and iPath ETN India (INP) +7.7%, up almost 34% ytd, are second and third-best.

Five other funds have ytd returns above 25% including Hong Kong (EWH) +2.5% (+28.7% ytd), Australia (EWA) +4.4% (+28.5%), Malaysia (EWM) +2.4% (+26.9%), Singapore (EWS) +1.1% (+25.7%) and Pacific ex-Japan (EPP) +3.6% (26.6%).

In fact, Japan (EWJ) is the only country-based iShares ETF in the region to not only be returning less than 10% ytd, but also be negative for the year.

See the chart below for last week's results. There are two sets of returns for each ETF: the past week [light blue] and year-to-date [purple].

Note, the bars for the iShares S&P 500 index (IVV) are colored differently for comparative purposes.

Click to enlarge chart

Disclosure: The author does not own shares of any funds mentioned in this article.

In Monday (9/24) trading, every country index posted gains (except Japan, which was closed for a holiday), led by 2.7% gains in Hong Kong (set new all-time high) and Singapore. The BSE Sensex in India rose 1.7% and the Shanghai Composite added 0.6%, both renewing all-time highs..

Recommended reading: No International ETFs Currently Oversold • Using Trade-To-GDP Ration To Evaluate Country ETFs

Here is a list of the relevant ETFs and their tickers.

iShares Australia (EWA)
iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 (FXI)
iShares Hong Kong (EWH)
iPath ETN MSCI India (INP)
iShares Japan (EWJ)
iShares Malaysia (EWM)
iShares Singapore (EWS)
iShares S. Korea (EWY)
iShares Taiwan (EWT)
iShares EAFE (EFA)
iShares Pacific ex-Japan (EPP)
iShares S&P 500 (IVV)